Strachan aims high by taking the Löw road with Scotland

Minutes after his appointment as Scotland manager had been confirmed at Hampden on Tuesday, Gordon Strachan revealed that his ambition is for the Scottish national team to follow the German model.

The veteran coach turns 56 on Feb 9, three days after taking charge for the first time in the challenge match against Estonia but he has been invigorated by the tactical nous of Germany coach Joachim Low.

Although the Barcelona tiki-taki method is more revered by purists, he believes that the Scots should take the Low road if they are to maximise their potential.

He is aware, though, that the transformation from Craig Levein's ultra-cautious approach to a more fluent, expansive and proactive way of playing cannot and will not happen overnight. Even so, Vorsprung durch Technik remains the ideal, with 4-3-3 the favoured formation.

"The first objective is to win: you have to win," he said. "We'd all like to play a certain style of football and mine is the German style.

"I think German football is terrific. They play three up front, but it's three strikers. When we try it, it's a winger who never scores or a midfielder on the other side who doesn't have a clue about coming inside or whatever.

"The Germans do it brilliantly, I've studied them. But we haven't developed players to do that. They don't have a sitting midfield player, they have [Mesut] Ozil who goes in a channel. That's the perfect way of playing football but you need these players who allow you to do it.

"It also allows the striker to stay in the box, because of the way the others move. We don't have that yet. There aren't many countries who do. People say, 'You play with one striker' but Germany play with three, because two of them can work [elsewhere on] the park.

"That's how I'd like to play football eventually, somewhere along the line. But we need to win. You have to find the best system that suits our best players and pick that system.

"It might not be beautiful football and passing the ball but we all want to win. It's all about finding a way to win."

The match against Estonia is unlikely to provide much in the way of clues as to future performances, however.

Strachan is more concerned with getting to know his players, proffering suggestions and listening to the feedback before the World Cup qualifying matches resume in March, at home to Wales and away to Serbia.

"You have to see what system the players are comfortable with," he said. "It might be very hard to do something like that against Estonia because we all know there are going to be a few call-offs."

As Aiden McGeady will testify, Strachan is not one to back down when it comes to a confrontation.

The Republic of Ireland winger did not enjoy the best of relationships with the latter during his time as Celtic's manager, culminating with a dressing-room row in December 2008, which resulted in the player being suspended for two matches by the club and fined a fortnight's wages.

Strachan, though, is well aware that he will need to alter his modus operandi when it comes to dealing with Steven Fletcher and Allan McGregor.

"If you fall out with a player at club level you just bring a new one in," he said. "International football not that simple.

"I've very rarely fallen out with a player, to be honest. I do fall out with them but it only lasts about a day and we can always make up again. But the demands you put on players at international level is completely different from club football.

"You can be more intense with them at a club because you pay their wages. You have to get the best from them whichever way you can.

"But here the players are turning up because they want to turn up. It's not for the wages, that's for sure.

"I remember playing out there against the Republic of Ireland. We got a pounds 100 appearance money to play. It was 60 per cent tax back then so we got pounds 40 after the game.

"When I was in the dressing room [afterwards], not even changed, one of the backroom people gave me a bill for pounds 140 because of the tickets I had to pay for.

"So it cost me pounds 100 to play for Scotland and then, the day after, I picked up some newspaper and saw I had [been] slaughtered.

"Then we have to send them back in the same mental state as they arrived. I remember when Gary McAllister used to come here from Coventry, when he came back I had to work on him for two days because he was so down, whether he hadn't played well, or got a bit of stick or a bad result.

"So we will have to send the players back in a reasonably strong mental state and that means we can't make the same demands of them as you would at club level.

"When I went out to play for Scotland I was doing it for the people watching me, my family. I remember scoring against West Germany [at the 1986 World Cup finals] and when I was walking back to the halfway line I was thinking, 'My dad will be jumping about the golf club now with his mates. He'll be steaming before the night's out!'?"

Friendly match

Feb 6 v Estonia (Pittodrie)

2014 World Cup qualifiers

March 22 v Wales (Hampden)

March 26 v Serbia

(Karadorde Stadium, Novi Sad)

June 7 v Croatia

(Maksimir Stadium, Zabreb)

Friendly match

Aug 14 v England (Wembley)